Dante vs. Bayonetta: The Witch Dances with the Devil Chapter 31

Bayonetta lets loose with gunfire. Dante mixes dodging with swordplay to keep from being riddled with holes. Feeling that she has distracted him enough, Bayonetta goes through another series of stances, shorter than before. “A GRAA ORS,” she calls out just as she strikes the last pose. Again, her hair-sewn outfit vanishes from her body. A large glyph forms in the sky and from it, emerges a gigantic black bird resembling a raven. Malphas fills the sky with a fearsome screech as it spreads its magnificent wings. This enigmatic raven-black bird has filled itself with all the world’s knowledge and mysteries. However, this same curiosity has led to a rather brutal demeanor, causing the bird to tear those it encounters to shreds with its sharp beak and razor-like talons. It hovers in the sky, gazing at Dante with its curious eye. Then Malphas dives down with its talons spread wide, intent on tearing the Son of Sparda asunder.

Watching the approaching avian horror, Dante is reminded of another bird-like devil he encountered. As Mundus’s most trusted servant, Griffon fought Dante with fierce loyalty for his master. He has no doubts that Malphas will do the same for Bayonetta. He braces his legs and throws Rebellion overhead to clash with the Malphas’s razor sharp talons. Malphas beats his wings, pressuring down hard on the Devil Hunter. Normally, Dante would be able to shove this demon bird’s attack aside with ease. But in his weakened state, this is proving difficult. Teeth grinding, he musters up extra strength from within until he finally shoves the giant talon away, leaving a gash in the process. Dante braces himself with Rebellion as fatigue begins to set in. Unfortunately, he won’t have this moment to recover.

Malphas lunges forward and wraps its powerful beak around Dante’s right shoulder. Dante grits his teeth and growls with pain. The demon bird chomps down, threatening to crush the Devil Hunter’s shoulder only to find that it couldn’t. Miraculously, Dante was able to shove Rebellion in between its beak preventing Malphas from biting down full force.

“Fine, you want to chew on something!” Reaching into his coat and behind his back, Dante whips out another piece of his arsenal—the powerful Coyote-A shotgun. It has great stopping power due to it sawed-off barrel, which he presses firmly into Malphas’ throat. Like with Ebony and Ivory, Dante feeds the Coyote his energy. “Chew on this!!” he says and then squeezes the trigger. The powerful blast from the shotgun tears through Malphas, sending it reeling after it is forced to release its hold on Dante. Bayonetta winces with pain at the same time. The blood of his father begins to make repairs to his injured shoulder, but due to his weakened state the process is taking longer than before. Nevertheless, Dante pushes himself onward. He cocks the shotgun and fires another demonically charged shot. One more shot severely injures Malphas’ right wing. Eye for an eye, he thought.

The gigantic black bird throws its head back and lets loose an ear piercing screech. Then it quickly drives forward with its powerful beak spread wide, intent on crushing the Son of Sparda to dust. Dante pumps more energy into the Coyote while he casts a sharp gaze. Malphas is right on top of Dante when he shoves the gun barrel into the black bird’s gaping mouth. “Hey Tweety, go flock yourself,” he says hollow toned.

BLAMM!

The Coyote’s howl destroys Malphas’ head. The rest of its pitch black body disintegrates in the hair that formed it. The hair reforms on Bayonetta’s body. She stands panting heavily. Summoning the Infernal Demons, except for Madama Butterfly, is taxing on the caster’s magical energy. When an Infernal Demon is injured the damage is also received by the caster which drains them of even more magical energy. This is the cost of bonding with an inhabitant of the Inferno. Bayonetta is feeling the effects of Gomorrah and Malphas’ injuries which nearly depleted her magic. A moment or two passes before the effects pass and she is able to stand firm. She looks at Dante and begins to see signs that their battle has begun to takes its toll on him. Spying the gash on his right shoulder inflicted upon him by Malphas, Bayonetta notices that the wound is healing more slowly. She recalls earlier when she impaled Dante with his own sword and after that when she slashed him across his chest with Shihaba. Both times his injury healed almost instantaneously. Now the wound has just finished closing where before it would’ve been repaired by the time Dante had drawn his shotgun.

With this information, Bayonetta contemplates her next move. She figures she has enough magic for one more summoning. However, summoning this Infernal Demon just may leave her completely drained, especially if it is forcibly banished by Dante. Then again, Dante may not have enough strength to defeat it. She could flee and continue this at another time, but why degrade herself like that. Giving the matter more thought, she comes to only one conclusion. Fleeing and defeat are not options; therefore, she must win.

“Hey, I’m still waiting for my kiss. What’s the hold-up?” Dante calls to her with his usual sarcasm.

“Has anyone ever told you that patience is a virtue?” Bayonetta said with equal cynicism.

Dante scoffs lightly and says, “Too bad it’s not one of my qualities.” Then, without warning, he aims and fires a demonically charged blast from the Coyote.

Bayonetta answers back with shot of her own, but not from her handguns. Rosemary and Thyme were gone from her hands, replaced with two stylish black shotguns with a black rose etched into the handles. These powerful shotguns possess unimaginable power and send many an angel to the Inferno. Their midnight coloration and rose motif are honorable of the name Onyx Roses. Unlike the Coyote-A, the Onyx Roses are single barrel shotguns with a semi-automatic action, meaning Bayonetta can fire of more rounds than Dante can with the Coyote. Throwing a coy smirk, she thrusts the Roses forward in sequence, firing off round with each thrust.

Though more rounds can be fired from semi-auto shotguns, Dante has a way of countering this. He whirls the Coyote around his body like nunchaku, blasting off rounds. Magic endowed pellets clash with demonic charged pellets and explode against each other like firecrackers. With one more whirl of his shotgun, Dante quickly draws Ivory, which is lighter and more stable than Ebony, and fires a single shot through the path that was cleared by a shot from the Coyote a split second earlier. The bullet wrapped in supernatural power streaks toward its target.

Bayonetta lines another shot from one of the Onyx Rose shotguns. She quickly snaps her head from the path of Ivory’s bullet, allowing it to sail past her but not before it left its mark on her right cheek. In that moment, she realizes that this fight can go no further. Her reaction is slowing due to fatigue. She quickly fires a shot from the Onyx Roses to give herself enough breathing room to whip around both legs one after the other, firing a shot from Parsley and Sage. Dante takes care of one bullet with a shot from Ivory and his shoulder takes the other. It seems that Bayonetta isn’t the only one feeling fatigued by their lengthy battle. With Dante distracted, she decides to use this opportunity to perform this final summoning. She goes through the necessary stylish stances. It is all or nothing. Striking the final pose, Bayonetta calls out the incantation, “AZAZAZ PIADPH!” Again, her clothes vanish from her body and a column of hair flows through a glyph that appears above her head.